My old buddy Kim asks me to comment on a laundry-list of proposals that pretty well encapsulate a great deal of the liberal/progressive agenda for America. Here’s his list in bold, with my comments in roman:
1. Return war powers to Congress
They never left – while the executive claims it has war powers, they haven’t been exercised without Congressional approval in a very long time.
2. Repeal the Patriot Act
You may as well say “Surrender to Al Qaeda”. The Patriot Act contains necessary powers to fight the terrorist threat, and while any act can and should be amended until it reaches perfection, we shouldn’t radically alter this one as long as Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Hamas are active.
3. Provide free education for all?through college
We effectively do this already as well, because the Pell Grant will pay your full tuition at many, if not most, state schools. I personally believe that many people attend college who would be better served by trade school programs, so additional state spending – not federal – would be well-directed in that direction rather than college.
4. Provide health care for all
Our health care system is completely screwed-up because so much of it is funded by employers through insurance companies that the direct connection between patient and doctor is lost, and the healthy and conscientious people have to effectively subsidize lard asses who don’t want to take care of themselves. That being said, a sizable portion of business costs are health-care-related, and a sizable number of people aren’t covered. So I’d favor a model where we establish government-funded clinics to provide health care at means-tested rates primarily in poor neighborhoods.
5. Require a living wage
The definition of a “living wage” varies across the nation, and it’s not especially important that teenagers at their first job have the ability to support a family of four. Rather, let’s instill an ethic where we frown on people who reproduce before they’re able to support their offspring.
6. Strengthen the social safety net
I’m in favor of longer-term unemployment insurance for people who genuinely need it, but not in favor of long-term welfare for people who don’t.
7. Keep Social Security out of corporate hands
Strongly opposed to the present system because the rate of return is too low. We need to keep social security out of the government’s general fund more than anything, and use it to leverage business investment.
8. Clean up the environment & public lands
I wasn’t aware they were dirty, but why don’t we sell off some public lands to cover the cash flow shortage when we shift social security over to private accounts? There are way too many of them.
9. Strengthen the Sherman Anti-Trust Act
I suppose we could do something here to break up Microsoft and Oracle.
10. Make the ?revolving door? between industry & regulatory agencies illegal
Attempts to do this have failed because they interfere with the right of humans to make a living.
11. Reserve human rights for humans, not ?aggregated capital?
Huh?
12. Keep Church & State separate
I like faith-based programs because they work, and the government should fund things that work whoever puts them on. And I love prayer in school, so screw that.
13. Abolish the Electoral College
The nice thing about the electoral college is that it prevents vote fraud in any given state from affecting the national election in an especially dramatic way. Reforming it so that electors are awarded by congressional district is the way to go.
14. Get corporations out of the voting process
But leave special interest groups like NOW, the NAACP, and the Sierra Club in? And let George Soros and Marc Rich dump millions into every election? No, we tried that with McCain-Feingold and it didn’t work. The solution to money in politics is more money, and with the Internet the Dems can raise it just as well as the Reeps. Did you know that Kerry raised more than Bush?
My overall reaction to this laundry list is that it would be way too expensive to implement all of these things even if they were all good, which they aren’t. And you know who gets to pay the bill?
Many thanks for your good comments, Richard.
To clarify #11: I mean giving corporations the “rights” of individual human beings.
On #12: “I love prayer in school” Surprising. I not only thought you weren’t religious, but rather put off by religiosity in general.
I asked yopu once if you were a Christian & I believe you said No, or words to that effect.
What prayers should be in schools? Usually proponants desire/specify or at least “suggest” they be Christian. Like to hear more on this.
Your old friend.
Re: PATRIOT act. Can you provide any evidence that it actually has been more effective in pursuing terrorists than in abridging the civil rights of people who were not terrorists? Measures that affect our rights deserve strong justification, and the “we need it to fight the terrorists” excuse has been abused too often. The people have a right to be skeptical of such claims, and to have their skepticism addressed.
Re: environment. If you’re “unaware” that public lands are dirty, visit some; wilful ignorance is unconvincing. You seemed very concerned about DDT in breast milk when it suited you; it would be disingenuous to ignore the dangers of similar or worse pollutants that are leaching into groundwater etc.
Re: selling public land. Since it’s a finite resource, such sale would provide a temporary solution at best to the fiscal problems you mention. Sooner or later we’d need to find sustainable solutions anyway, and in the meantime we would have harmed ourselves through the sale. Doing something irreversible to put off solving an unrelated problem is rarely sound policy.
Re: electoral college. That has to be the most specious excuse I’ve ever seen for keeping it. Introducing systemic distortion to prevent a hypothetical problem that, even if it occurred, could be addressed by other means is another example of lousy policy.
By purest coincidence, I just found this about the recent Pell-grant cuts:
The source is http://villagevoice.com/issues/0447/kamenetz.php in this case, so I expect the well to be poisoned, but the numbers are verifiable.
Reading the article, the substance seems to be a minor reduction in the number of qualified recipients, not a reduction in the grant level. For Pell Grant purposes, child support isn’t considered income, so it’s pretty easy for most children of liberal families to qualify.